From innocence to Destruction: the Interpretation of Columbine Killers
...e out of his busy day to take a quick picture. His eyes gaze at you with a focused expression, perhaps serious, perhaps angry. Looking at the picture, you can infer that the boy on the left is more mature then the boy on the right. The point is that there is not much going on in the picture. That is significant because behind the picture there is actually a lot going on. The two boys look as though they are innocent while underneath the surface they are killers. At 11:30 on April 20, 1999 these two boys had more than school on their mind as they carried guns and explosives into Columbine high school. The two gunmen approached the cafeteria shooting and setting off explosives. They entered the school library, where the two killers systematically shot their fellow students. An hour after the tragedy began, it came to an end when the two no longer innocent boys took their own lives. Six hours later the building was declared clear. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were found dead; Eric had taken his life by firing a shotgun into his mouth, while Dylan had shot himself in his right temple. In the end, the boys had taken the lives of thirteen innocent victims, not counting their own. The two young boys appear innocent in their little league pictures yet, that innocence, if it existed, was nowhere to be seen only a few years later on April 20, 1999. While we truly don’t know what was on the minds of Eric and Dylan, many of us speculate about the reasons for their actions, and everyone interprets things differently. For example, Carina Brackett said, “When I look at this picture I am shocked that these two innocent boys turned into troubled teens. They do not look like they would grow up to do something like go on a killing spree. I would like to know if they were troubled from an early age.” Viktoria Loniewsky states, “When looking at the picture of the two young boys, its hard to think that they ended the lives of so many. It makes me wonder what happened that made them have such hatred against the world.” The quote supports to show how they actually ended many lives, when in the picture they look so innocent but really had stored hatred. Ryan Spaulding quoted “From first glance the young children appear just like everyday kids. They had baseball, an interest to keep them out of trouble. The angelic faces make it impossible to believe they were capable of such a catastrophe. The picture shows it does not take the mean bully to commit such wrongdoing.” Ryan is expressing they common dismay that accompanies the realization that any child could suddenly and une...